Truly, Madly, Deeply
by white-moth
Summary: OKAY! I'm still alive. Sorry, it's been a terrible month (or so...) It'll still be about a week before I update, but I will be. I think. Or maybe just doing a new story, because this one sucks so much. Sorry. I promise there'll be more. :)
1. A new beginning

/b This is kind of obligatory, I guess. I don't own Chris Chambers or Gordie Lachance or any other characters that you may recognize in this story. So far, I only own Jessica Lisbon and Elizabeth Hart. So don't sue. Because I can't afford a lawyer and Syrian lawyers are... not so good. No offence to any Syrian lawyers.  
  
Gordie Lachance slumped down at the lunch table with a huge sigh. God, he hated Mondays. He hated school. He hated French class. He hated French class with a passion.  
  
"Gordie!"  
  
Gordie glanced up and his grouchy face melted into a smile at the familiar sight of the tiny girl with riotous blue-black curls bounding towards him. "Hey, Jess."  
  
Jessica Lisbon collapsed into the seat next to him. "You look like someone just stole your favourite chipmunk out of the zoo and sold it to you in a burger." She paused. "Hee! Is that what happened?"  
  
Gordie wrinkled his nose at her. Jessica was one of his best friends in the world. She had been dating Gordie's best friend Chris Chambers for over three years now, and Gordie adored her. But she came out with some pretty damned strange expressions sometimes.  
  
"No, Jess," Gordie answered patiently. "For one thing, I don't even like chipmunks and I will never be able to comprehend your obsession with them. For another... Well, I don't think I need another reason why me eating my favourite chipmunk would be causing me such emotional stress."  
  
"Oh," Jessica said as she reached across him to snatch one of his cookies. "Then what is it?"  
  
Gordie let out a dramatic sigh. "French class."  
  
"Not again," Jessica said crossly. "That's all you ever complain about anymore. You know I'll help you out with your work. Your problem with French class is that it's the only class in the whole universe that you've ever had problems with."  
  
"That's fine for you to say," Gordie grumbled. "You are French. You speak French at home, for God's sake. You don't have to take this... this hour of HELL that plagues me every other day. Jess, I'm going insane, I swear. Today the teacher lady asked me a question and I didn't know the answer and I sat there in total silence for like a year, until she yelled at me and told me that the answer was la poupŽe. What the hell is a poupee? Why would I ever need one? Jess?"  
  
Gordie looked up to see that Jessica wasn't even at the table anymore. He looked around wildly, concerned about her wellbeing. Jessica could get into more trouble in two seconds than Gordie had ever gotten in in the whole of his sixteen years; he vividly remembered her disappearing out of her seat at the movies and the next time he'd seen her, she'd been sitting between two security guards, waiting for the police to arrive. She'd tried to 'borrow', as she put it, a movie poster for Breakfast At Tiffany's- Jessica's favourite movie of all time- and 'hadn't realised' that they weren't available for borrowing. But to Gordie's relief and half-disappointment, she had simply scampered to greet her boyfriend Chris as he approached the table. The couple sat down in a disgustingly snuggly way.  
  
"Hey," Chris greeted Gordie as he reached across to steal a cookie. "Why do you look like someone just ran your pet chipmunk over?"  
  
Gordie glared at him. "You have been spending way too much time around your midget of a girlfriend."  
  
"I am not a midget!" Jessica said indignantly. "I'm just not a giant, like you. How tall are you, anyway, nine feet? Besides you'll shrink as you get older. I'll probably get taller. Ha!"  
  
Gordie didn't even want to think about the logic that had led Jessica to that conclusion. "Jess, what's une poupŽe?"  
  
"A what?" Chris asked as Jessica leaned across him to rearrange Gordie's hair. "Is that French? Why didn't you just take Spanish?"  
  
"Shut up," Gordie told him. "Jess! Stop playing with my hair and tell me why the French teacher told me that my favourite toy as a child was probably une poupŽe"  
  
"Une poupŽe is a doll," Jessica informed him, snickering. "Why she told you that is probably due to the aura of homosexuality you project. Ow! Chris, Gordie kicked me. Please defend my honour in an appropriately violent way."  
  
"I can't beat Gordie up," Chris said. "I'd probably kill him with my supreme manly strength and muscles. Gordie, you'd probably look less gay if you cut your hair, you wet end."  
  
"Go fuck a tree," Gordie told him. "My hair hasn't changed since I was twelve. And I haven't been short of girls throwing themselves at me."  
  
"You mean throwing themselves in front of you, to defend you from Ace and Eyeball," Chris snickered. "Jessie, remember that time you had to ask Ace and Billy to leave Gordie alone because he was too busy crying?"  
  
"He wasn't crying," Jessica told her boyfriend, in an attempt to prove Gordie's masculinity. "His eyes were watering because your maniac brother punched him in the stomach when he tried to run away."  
  
Chris just laughed again, while Gordie went over the incident in his head and wished he could say something to contradict Jessica. Maybe he should just change the subject.  
  
"Jessica?"  
  
"Yes, Gordie?"  
  
"Change the subject."  
  
"Okay!" Jessica thought. "Oh, there's a new girl. She sits next to me in my English class."  
  
"What a great first impression she must have gotten of Castle Rock," Chris muttered, ruffling his girlfriend's hair. "She probably thinks we're all psychopaths who draw chipmunks on everything."  
  
"I wish," Jessica said regretfully. "She's nice. Oh, there she is."  
  
Gordie and Chris turned around to check out the new girl. Chris turned back to Jessica after a quick glance, but Gordie stared.   
  
"Elizabeth!" Jessica called. "Don't sit next to those girls, they are heavily diseased and oozing with pus."  
  
Chris snickered as the new girl giggled and the table of Popular-But-Bitchy Cheerleaders glared at his girlfriend.  
  
"Come sit here," Jessica invited the new girl, sending a cheerful smile at the PBBCs.  
  
The girl walked over and sat down hesitantly next to Jessica.  
  
"Guys, this is Elizabeth Hart," Jessica said. "She moved here from England! She's never seen a chipmunk in real life, but she would like to. She's 15. She lives near the View, only she's not a View-ite, because she's nice and has no visible signs of being in the Hitler Youth or anything. Liz, this is my boyfriend Chris. He has a second name, but he generally goes by Chris The Love God. And this is Gordie Lachance. He does not go by Gordie The Love God, despite his feverent hopes."  
  
"Hi," Chris said, giving Elizabeth a friendly smile. "When did you move here?"  
  
Gordie barely heard Elizabeth's answer, because he could hardly take his eyes off her. She was almost the same height as him, with straight blonde hair and sparkling green eyes.  
  
"Last week," Elizabeth said, returning Chris's smile. "My family lived here when I was small, but we moved to London when I was four. We're back in our old house now."  
  
Gordie's stomach had gone fluttery with the sounds of her accent. "Hi," he blurted out.  
  
Elizabeth turned to him, smiling. "Hi!"  
  
Gordie grinned foolishly at her, mesmerized by the way the light reflected off her eyes. He suddenly noticed the silence and the way Elizabeth's eyebrows were raised, as if she was expecting him to say something. Chris and Jessica were looking at him the same way. Oh, God! Say something, Lachance, say something!  
  
"I like to swim," he said eventually. Jessica looked relieved, as though that was what she herself would have said, while Chris looked amused and Elizabeth looked confused.  
  
"Cool," she said eventually, giving him another smile. "I like to swim too. Where do you swim around here?"  
  
Gordie was speechless. At least, he had words in his head- but if they were anything like 'I like to swim,' he would rather remain silent forever.  
  
"I swim in my bathtub," Jessica offered, seeing that Gordie wasn't planning to speak anytime soon.  
  
"Yeah," Chris put in, hoping to detract attention from his best friend's sudden catatonia. "I swim in bathtubs, lakes, uh... oceans..."  
  
"Toliets," Jessica suggested. "Sinks, maybe."  
  
"Right," Chris agreed. "All those places. Um, Gordie? Gordie. Your elbow is in my rice."  
  
Gordie wished he was dead.  
  
"Okay!" Jessica said eventually. "Um, Liz, do you want to go to the office and see if your schedule is done yet?"  
  
"Sure," Elizabeth agreed, looking simultaneously bewildered and hysterical.  
  
"Great," Jessica beamed. "I need a smoke, too, so if we end up outside instead of in the office... Well, that's where we'll be. See you two later."  
  
"Bye," Chris said, leaning back and accepting a kiss on the forehead from Jessica before she dragged Elizabeth out of the room. Even when the two had disappeared from sight, Chris could still hear his girlfriend babbling excitedly about something, even if he couldn't make out the exact words. Smirking, he turned back to Gordie.  
  
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Gordie exploded, slamming his hands down on the tabletop. "I'm Gordie Lachance! I'm relatively smooth! I don't fall into a coma when a pretty girl is near me!"  
  
"I don't know, man," Chris murmured, obviously wondering the same thing. "Maybe you just really like her."  
  
"I don't even KNOW her!" Gordie exclaimed. "God, I'm a wet end. Teddy was right, all these years." He moaned and buried his head in his hands. "Did I tell her that... that I liked to swim?"  
  
"That was pretty much all you told her," Chris agreed. "Look, don't worry, Gordo. She and Jessie will become good friends then you'll see her all the time."  
  
Gordie sighed and shook his head. "Oh, man. How can I ever live down the impression I just made, Chris? A swimming zombie. That's... That's like something Jessica would talk about in an oral report. In fact, she did talk about some kind of swimming zombie in her last oral report. I'm straight out of Jessica's warped imagination."  
  
Chris snickered. "Yeah, I remember when she did that." Seeing Gordie's mournful expression, he turned serious. "It's gonna be okay, Gordie. When you next see her, you can dazzle her with all your charm and wit. She'll forget about the swimming zombie thing." He hesitated. "Maybe."  
  
Gordie closed his eyes. "Oh, God."  
  
/b What do you guys think? I'm not really sure about if, so i would definitely appreciate some reviews :) Um, no flames? Please? But if you really feel the need to flame, who am I to restrict you, right? So... Is it okay? Please help me out here! Thank you! :) 


	2. I'll be your dream

A/N! Thank you all so much for the reviews, I *really* appreciate them all! I guess I'll try and keep going. Oh, and I'm sorry for the messed up HTML in the first chapter, me and ff.net are just getting to know each other I guess. I also realize I spelt 'toilets' incorrectly in chapter one, pretty embarrassing! /////  
  
As Gordie walked to Jessica's locker with Chris after last period, he was mentally reviewing how to act around Elizabeth. Stand up straight! Smile! Flick hair out of eyes! Call her 'babe'! Don't-  
  
"'Babe'?" Chris said next to him. "No, I don't think so, Lachance. You're definitely not cool enough to pull off 'babe'. Plus, you don't even know her. And plus, no girl wants to be called 'babe'. I mean, if I called someone 'babe', they would probably just wind up and hit me in the-"  
  
"Chris!" Gordie barked. "What the hell are you talking about? God, you'd think spending time with Jessica would give you brain cells, since she clearly has very little use for hers and is therefore handing them out for free, but you just get weirder every damned day. Any girl would love to be called 'babe', especially when coupled with the famous Lachance hair-flick and- Wait. Back up. How did you know I was thinking of calling Elizabeth 'babe'? Not that I was."  
  
"You were speaking out loud," Chris informed him. "Actually, you were kind of speaking out loud and standing up real straight and smiling. You were, in fact, hitting on the whole school."  
  
"I was mentally reviewing," Gordie explained.   
  
"Try and do it silently next time," Chris advised him. "And I don't appreciate what you said about my girlfriend, by the way, but I was too busy hoping you weren't calling ME babe to say so at the time. What are we gonna do now anyway?"  
  
"When your flake of a girlfriend has showed up," Gordie said as they leaned against Jessica's locker, "we can go to the treehouse where you and Jess can sit quietly and supervise the process of Elizabeth falling in love with me."  
  
Chris looked at him silently.  
  
"What?" Gordie demanded. "Like it's unlikely? I'm unloveable? 'Cause listen, Chambers, this smile can melt a female heart at twenty paces! In fact, it probably has the same effect on men! My kissability is higher than yours will ever be, so just-"  
  
"Gordie," Chris said slowly. "I'm not doubting your, uh, kissability- and if you ever repeat what I just said in front of anyone else, I'll beat the shit out of you- I'm just curious. Why do you like Elizabeth so much? You don't even know the girl. You told her that you liked to swim, then you, like, died in front of her."  
  
"She's pretty," Gordie said dreamily. "She has green eyes that you fall into. And her hair shines like newly-brushed ponies."  
  
"Ponies?" Chris asked. "Wait, never mind, I don't even want to know."  
  
"Chris," Gordie said, turning to him. "I just like her. I don't know why. She's really pretty and she seems nice and her accent makes me feel like I've just been kicked in the stomach, but in the best way ever. So the only question is, do you think she'll like me?"  
  
Chris grinned at him. "Sure. If I was a girl, I'm sure I'd like you." Gordie grimaced at him. "I'm just trying to be supportive. I don't think you're cute, Lachance."  
  
"Shut up! Okay, so I'm just going to flirt with her. Really, really hard. Chris, this might sound weird, but can I- can I practice on you?"  
  
Chris almost fell into the locker. "Hell no! Use Jessica, use Vern, use my brother, but you are calling me babe and flicking your hair at me. Look, here's Jessica. Flirt away."  
  
Jessica ran up to them so fast she crashed into the lockers. "Oh, Goddamnit, that hurt. Hi. I'm sorry I'm late, but I set fire to my shoe."  
  
Chris looked at her.  
  
"Don't even ask," Jessica said irritably. "Let's go." She turned to Gordie and did a double take. Gordie was smiling at her with his eyebrow raised, flicking his hair wildly. "What- Gordie- Chris, why is he looking at me like that?"  
  
"Do you like it, babe?" Gordie asked, leaning close to her. "Does it make you feel all funny inside?"  
  
"Chris," Jessica said, practically climbing inside her boyfriend's shirt. "He's creeping me out. If you don't make him stop, I'll set fire to a chipmunk and throw it- No, I didn't say that. I'll set fire to something and throw it at your house in the middle of the night."  
  
"Stop it now, Gordie," Chris said, putting a comforting arm around Jessica. "Gordie, stop flicking your hair. Gordie. Lachance, cut it out!"  
  
Gordie tossed his hair so vigorously he practically gave himself whiplash, but he continued smiling at Jessica, who hid behind Chris, who was growing more annoyed by the second. In the end, Chris sighed.  
  
"Lachance," Chris said softly, leaning close to him. "You're beginning to make me feel so... So funny, inside-"  
  
"Okay!" Gordie said, leaping back. "I get it, I'll stop. Jeez, some friends you wet ends are. A guy tries to practice his flirting, and all he gets-"  
  
"That was flirting?" Jessica asked, peering up at him from underneath her hair. "God, that was terrible flirting, Gordie. I feel more fluttery when Eyeball flirts with me."  
  
"Eyeball flirts with you?!" Chris turned to her. "When? Where? Where was I? What were you doing?"  
  
"Relax," Jessica said quickly, snuggling up to him. "I ignore the flutters. In fact, they weren't flutters, even. They were probably gas."  
  
Chris made a face. "Thanks, Jessie."  
  
"Jessica," Gordie said impatiently. "Is Elizabeth meeting us here?"  
  
"No," Jessica said in suprise. "Who said she was? She said she'd come to the treehouse later, though."  
  
"Okay," Gordie grinned happily. "We'll stay there all night. We'll sleep there if we have to. We will become treehouse-dwellers. Or something. Whatever, we're just not leaving. To the treehouse!"  
  
/////  
  
Five hours, nine bottles of Coke, one packet of cigarettes, eighteen Twinkies and twelve games of three-penny scat which left Jessica seventy-two cents richer later, Chris was growing impatient.  
  
"Gordie, I don't think she's coming."  
  
"No, she is," Jessica said lazily from her position on the floor. "She definitely said she would. She's unpacking. Maybe a family of chipmunks took up residence in her suitcase and she's finding them all homes." She sat up, alarmed. "I could be missing an opportunity to get My First Chipmunk!"  
  
"No, Jessie, I don't think so," Chris said soothingly. "Lie down again. Gordie, seriously."  
  
"Just. A little. Longer," Gordie said tightly. "Let's play another game of scat, okay?"  
  
Chris winced. "I don't have much more money to lose, man."  
  
"Well, then I guess Jessica can't play," Gordie said cheerfully, shuffling the cards.  
  
"No, I wanna play!" Jessica sat up and shuffled over to a box-seat. "I'll try really, really hard not to win, though, okay?"  
  
"You better try really hard," Chris said threateningly. "The more money I lose here, the less I have to spend on pretty things for you."  
  
Jessica smiled at him. "The only pretty thing I want is you." Chris grinned back at her and leaned over to kiss her, prompting Gordie to groan loudly and cover his eyes.  
  
"Great, now you two are getting mushy."  
  
Jessica scowled at him. "That's 'cause you've been keeping us here! Usually we would have been making out for the last two hours. If I end up pregnant as a result of being held hostage in this treehouse, I'll make you pay for my medical bills."  
  
Gordie snickered. "Jess, it takes a man and a woman to make a baby, remember? Two women together do not a baby make."  
  
"I'm not a woman!" Jessica cried, stung. "Wait, I mean, Chris isn't a woman! He's more manly than you, Lachance. Show him, Chris. Take off your pants."  
  
"Maybe later," Chris said. "I don't like making my best friend feel inadequate, Jessie. He already called me 'babe' today."  
  
Jessica looked curiously over to Gordie.  
  
"I did not!" Gordie cried. "I was mentally reviewing! Mentally! Reviewing!"  
  
"Girls don't like being called babe," Jessica informed him. "Well, I don't."  
  
"You like being called chipmunk," Gordie reminded her. "I don't think you qualify as a normal girl."  
  
"Just deal," Chris said impatiently. Gordie rolled his eyes and did so, giving them all three cards. Jessica picked up her cards and hesitated. Gordie looked at her and sighed in frustration.  
  
"Just do it, Jess."  
  
Jessica smiled happily and knocked on the table. "I knock."  
  
Chris and Gordie threw down their cards. Jessica looked wounded.   
  
"That's not fair! You have to at least draw another card."  
  
"What's the point?" Chris asked. "You have thirty one, right?"  
  
"Yes," Jessica told him. "But at least go through the motions. It makes winning more fun."  
  
Chris sighed and picked up another card. Gordie did the same.   
  
"Twelve," Gordie said.  
  
"Eighteen," Chris said.  
  
"Thirty one," Jessica said happily, picking up their pennies. "I love this game."  
  
Gordie growled and swept the cards off the table. "I'm never playing with you again. Not until you get off this winning streak."  
  
"Okay, she's not coming," Chris said impatiently. "Gordie, can we go? Please?"  
  
Gordie looked from his pleading face to Jessica's. He sighed and drained the last of his Coke.  
  
"You're right," he said sadly. "She's not coming. Thanks for hanging out anyway, guys."  
  
"No problem," Chris said, patting him on the shoulder. "I'm sorry, man. Maybe tomorrow."  
  
Jessica nodded, grabbing her bag. "She'll definitely come tomorrow. Maybe she'll even bring the chipmunks."  
  
Gordie looked at Chris. "You better explain to your girlfriend that there are no chipmunks, Chris."  
  
"I'll get on it," Chris promised. "See you tomorrow, Gordo. Come on, Jessie." Chris disappeared through the trapdoor.  
  
"Bye Gordie," Jessica said sweetly, giving him a hug. "Don't worry. Just work on the hair-flicking. How could any girl resist you?"  
  
Gordie held the trapdoor open for her and watched the two walk away, hand in hand, Jessica's voice floating up through the air- "What do you mean, Elizabeth has no chipmunks? I saw them!"- and Chris's- "No, you didn't, Jessie! If you're telling me you've started to see chipmunks again, I'm going to make you quit smoking. It does crazy things to your head."  
  
Gordie grinned and closed the trapdoor, plopping down on a box and sighing. Chris and Jessica were his best friends and they never made him feel left out, but he envied their closeness so much. Gordie had had his share of girlfriends, but nothing serious. He wanted to look at a girl with the same look Chris had in his eyes when he looked at Jessica- like if anything in the world tried to hurt her, he would kill them.  
  
Gordie was shaken out of his thoughts by a knock on the trapdoor. He leaned over automatically and opened it, expecting it be Jessica bitching about how she'd left her Chemistry textbook or her Spanish textbook or, hell, any textbook, up there. Instead, he heard the voice that made his stomach feel like it had just been kicked by an angel wearing really big boots.  
  
"Hi, Gordie," Elizabeth said, beaming up at him. "Am I too late?" 


	3. I'll be your hope

A/N!!! THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH for all your reviews! I'm sorry it's been so long! This chapter really isn't as good as the other two, I don't think...  
  
"Am I too late?"  
  
Gordie opened his mouth to answer and realized he'd forgotten how to speak. He wondered where the hell his vocal cords had gone- Oh. That must be them there in the corner, laughing at him. Well, God was obviously over there too.  
  
Elizabeth was beginning to look concerned.  
  
"Gordie? Are you okay?"  
  
No, Gordie thought bitterly. I'm in a private room with the girl of my dreams late at night, and my powers of speech are playing poker with God and planning how to screw me next.  
  
Elizabeth was still waiting.  
  
Oh, God! Say something Lachance, say something! But not about swimming. Not swimming! No! No! No!  
  
"Swimming," he said. "Fish swim. In water."  
  
Great. Very good.  
  
Elizabeth giggled and climbed up into the treehouse.   
  
"So where are Jessica and Chris?" she asked, looking around as though she expected to see them hiding in a Coke bottle. Gordie wouldn't actually have been suprised if Jessica had poked her head up from a bottle. Probably she'd be dressed as a chipmunk. Oh, God! Don't start thinking about chipmunks now, Lachance!  
  
"They went home."  
  
Gordie actually looked around to see who had spoken before realizing it had been him. Surely that was far too coherant? Shit, it even made sense and didn't involve swimming. Obviously there was someone in his brain still half-sane.  
  
"Oh, okay." Elizabeth picked up a packet of cigarettes. "Are these yours?"  
  
Oh, no. She was obviously one of those girls who thought all smokers were the Antichrist. Quick, Lachance, be smooth!  
  
Or if not smooth, at least be alive. Hello? Lachance?  
  
"No," Gordie said quickly. "I don't smoke. Smoking, ugh! The tar! The badness! Smoking is a deadly sin. It should be illegal. Smokers should be shot! Shot by the villagers!"  
  
Very good, he praised himself. Although... villagers? He hoped Elizabeth wouldn't ask about that, because he surely didn't know.  
  
"Oh," Elizabeth said, looking guilty. "I'm sorry, I won't have one then."  
  
Gordie wanted to kill whoever was doing his internal dialogue. At least he ddn't have to talk about the villagers anymore. And maybe this would be a good time to do some flirting. He leaned in to light her cigarette... She touched his hand... He flicked his hair... They got to some hot monkey lovin'... Monkey lovin'? Oh, God! Shut up, Lachance!  
  
"No, it's okay," he said honestly. "I don't know why I said that. I actually smoke sometimes. I just didn't want to make you uncomfortable or anything. They're Chris's smokes, but go ahead and take one. I'll have one too."  
  
He ran what he had just said back through his head. Hey, it made sense. He was making progress.  
  
Elizabeth smiled, looking slightly confused, but unfazed. "Okay, great. Thanks. Do you have a light?"  
  
Gordie reached behind him and grabbed his lighter. He leaned forward and flicked the switch. Mercifully, it sparked and Elizabeth leaned forward, cigarette in her mouth. She touched his hand to bring the flame closer to her mouth and he almost melted into a pool of mushy goo. Hee. She touched him. They were practically engaged!  
  
He looked at her in the flickering flame, reflecting off her hair and in her eyes and his mouth went dry. She was so pretty. He hadn't managed to say a single normal thing to her yet, but God, she was so pretty and nice. Surely this was a primetime to be doing some grade-A Lachance flirting! If such a thing existed. He cleared his throat and she raised her eyes to his as her cigarette lit. He smiled and she smiled back. He flicked his hair out of his eyes.  
  
And he was still holding the lighter.  
  
And he had flicked his hair quite dramatically.  
  
So now...  
  
The hair he had just flicked out of his eyes...  
  
Was on fire.  
  
Goddamnit!  
  
/////  
  
Meanwhile, Jessica and Chris were walking along star-lined streets hand in hand. Chris was walking Jessica home and of course they were taking the longest possible route. Twice.  
  
"So then what happened?" Chris asked, swinging their hands.  
  
"Well, then the whole class turned and pointed at me, and said, 'It was Jessica!'" Jessica said huffily. "So I said, 'Class, that was not very community spirited!'"  
  
"And what did they say?"  
  
"They pointed out that throwing pencils at the back of their heads isn't very community spirited either," Jessica said. "So I said, 'No, but it sure is funny.' And then Simons told me to leave the classroom and come back when I grow up."  
  
"Yeah, and what did you do?"  
  
"I went home, of course," Jessica said indignantly. "I refuse to stay at an institution where you have to be grown up to attend. Then the school called my house, so I went back in, and into Chemistry, where I set fire to my shoe."  
  
"Oh, yeah," Chris said, snapping his fingers. "I knew you'd done something weird today that I hadn't asked about."  
  
"Well, I thought it would be funny to set fire to my shoelace," Jessica explained. "But then my whole shoe caught fire. Wouldn't you think that they'd make sneakers inflammable?"  
  
"Sure," Chris said thoughtfully. "Or at least not sell lighters to insane sixteen year old French girls."  
  
"Yeah," Jessica agreed. "Society has no one to blame but itself. Maybe I'll have to become an anarchist. Anarchy in Castle Rock! I'll crash the Quilting Bee."  
  
"Lock up your children," Chris said, laughing. His expression fell serious suddenly. "I felt bad for Gordo tonight."  
  
"Me too," Jessica agreed. "His hair looked really weird today. Maybe he should start using a curling iron again."  
  
Chris rolled his eyes. "What the fuck is it that goes on in your head, Jessie?"  
  
"I'm not always sure," Jessica mused. "Sometimes I think it's like a party, only I haven't been invited. And I wish I had, because it sounds fun in there."  
  
Chris glanced sideways at her and grinned. "I love you."  
  
"I love you, too," Jessica said, releasing his hand and putting her arm around his waist. He put his free arm around her shoulders.  
  
"Does she like him?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Sincerely?"  
  
"What? Who?"  
  
Chris kicked her. "Elizabeth! Does she like Gordie?"  
  
"Oh," Jessica said. "Hmm. I don't know. She said he seemed a little slow but sweet."  
  
Chris snickered. "I'm gonna tell him that. She thinks Gordie Lachance is slow. See, what girls don't get about Gordie is that when they think he's being slow, he thinks he's being smooth."  
  
"Gordie is pretty," Jessica said. "If I wasn't already dating a total loser, I'd date him."  
  
"Yeah, I'm dating a loser too. If I wasn't, man, I'd be on Gordie like white on rice." Chris glanced down at Jessica. "You better not be taping this conversation."  
  
"Oh, I am," Jessica said casually. "Right now the FBI is cross-referencing your details with any rice-related fetish serial killers. You probably shouldn't answer the phone tonight."  
  
"Tomorrow will be clear, though, right?"  
  
"By tomorrow, the FBI will be solving a murder or something."  
  
"Cool." They had reached Jessica's house for the third time. Chris glanced reluctantly at his watch. "I guess you better go home now."  
  
"Yeah, I guess." Jessica put her arms around Chris's neck and he kissed her. She touched his face lightly. "See you tomorrow?"  
  
"Yeah, sure," Chris said distractedly.  
  
Jessica looked at him sharply, sensing the mood change. She recognized these signs- Chris looking nervously up and down the street, his face regaining the terrifying expression of a seventeen year old boy resigned to a cold home with fists flying out of the dark, and it made her heart fling itself into a freefall of hate for his father. Chris looked back at her and smiled bravely.  
  
"Bye, Jessie."  
  
"Chris..." She grabbed his hand. "Are things-"  
  
Chris bit his lip and looked at the ground and Jessica exhaled sadly. "Mean streak, huh?"  
  
"It's okay," Chris said shortly, not meeting her eye.  
  
"Do you wanna stay over?" she asked softly.   
  
Chris hesitated and nodded. There was a pause until he finally glanced up at her and smiled gratefully, saying everything he couldn't say out loud.  
  
Jessica squeezed his hand. "Come on in. But I swear, if you steal the blanket, I'm going to tell Vern you have a huge crush on him."  
  
Chris's eyes opened wide in alarm. "I remember when you did that to Teddy. Vern still refuses to take his shirt off when Teddy's around."  
  
/////  
  
"Oh, my God!" Elizabeth cried. She dropped her cigarette into a bottle of Coke and leapt up.  
  
Gordie was already up.  
  
Jumping up and down and shrieking.  
  
All he could see was the burning strands of hair.  
  
"Gordie, calm down!" Elizabeth squealed. She grabbed him by the shoulders and whacked him across the forehead. He practically fell out of the window from the force, but the smoking strands of hair were no longer smoking.   
  
The treehouse smelt of hair. Burnt hair. Did he have any hair to flick anymore? Oh, God. He sat down heavily on the box that happened to be underneath him. Elizabeth sat down too, shakily.  
  
He put his face in his hands.  
  
This was it. He had burned his prize flicking hair and squealed like a girl. Elizabeth was probably going to shoot him. Well, good. Then she would leave and tell everyone at school and he may as well be dead. And she would never want to go out with him now, because she was probably-  
  
Laughing her ass off.  
  
Gordie raised his face and realized Elizabeth was sitting next to him shaking with laughter.  
  
LAUGHTER?  
  
"What's funny?" he demanded.  
  
She merely shook her head and laughed harder.  
  
"What's funny?" he asked, his voice rising. "I was on fire! And I haven't said a single thing to you that's normal since I met you! I was a swimming zombie, now I'm a swimming zombie with a bald burned place where his prize-winning flick-hair was!"  
  
Elizabeth stopped laughing and grinned at him. And his insides turned to jelly and started giggling like thirteen year old girls. She smiled at me, like, oh my God! Heehee, she smiled! Oh, God! Shut up, insides!  
  
"Gordie, you're kind of weird," Elizabeth said gently. "But you have a smile that makes every female part of me-" she hesitated. "Which is all of me, don't get the wrong idea- you make every adolescent female part of me squeal and giggle. And you're right when you say you haven't said anything normal to me since I got here..."  
  
Gordie held his breath.  
  
"But I only met you this morning." Elizabeth patted him on the head. "And we have all night for you to say normal things to me now."  
  
Gordie thought back to what she said about his smile. And then he smiled at her.  
  
Elizabeth blushed. "That's what I'm talking about."  
  
She smiled back at him and suddenly Gordie didn't care about his bald burnt ex-flick-hair.  
  
"So, what do you say, Gordie? Can we stay here and get to know each other a little? Because I don't think you really are a swimming zombie."  
  
"Sometimes I am," Gordie said honestly.   
  
"Me, too," Elizabeth laughed. "So how late can you stay out tonight? Let's stay up all night and get to know each other. Can we?"  
  
Gordie's insides started shrieking and dancing around, but miraculously, he managed to stay still.  
  
"Sure," he said, amazed at how... well, normal, he sounded. "It's only nine-forty-five. We have all night."  
  
A/N! I think this chapter kind of sucked, but I promise I'll try and get back on track. Please R and R! Love you guys :) 


	4. INTERLUDE not a chapter

Hi everybody, thank you so much for the reviews! Thank you for reassuring me that my chapter did not suck, although I'm not convinced when I reread it :S  
  
Anyway, I wanted to say I'm sorry for updating so infrequently. I'm so busy with the starting of my school again and everything. Hopefully I can write a chapter later today and post it, so maybe when you read this, you will think, 'What is she talking about, there's a new chapter today anyway!' If not today, then SOON.  
  
I promise I haven't forgotten Truly, Madly, Deeply. I'm in this for the long run.  
  
xoxox 


	5. Everything that you need

A/N! Okay, so here we are. Thanks so much for the reviews, you guys are so great! I still think chapter 3 sucks, but this one isn't so great either. I think I'm losing it :S Anyway, enjoy!  
  
/////  
  
Chris stuck his head in Jessica's refridgerator. "Jessie, you have no food. And that's okay. Except I'm hungry."  
  
Jessica came up behind him and stuck her head in too. Together they surveyed the shelves. "Hmm. You lied." Jessica reached in and pulled out a pot of butter. "Here we go."  
  
Chris looked at her. "You want me to eat butter?"  
  
"What's wrong with butter?" Jessica asked indignantly.  
  
"Nothing," Chris said. "Except generally people eat things with butter. Like, uh, I don't know. Bread."  
  
"Oh," Jessica said thoughtfully. She padded over to the other end of the kitchen and opened a cupboard. "No bread. But we have chocolate muffins. Want to try those?"  
  
Chris thought it over. "Sure." He walked over to join her and noticed something else in the cupboard. "Hey, marshmallows! Let's melt them."  
  
"Okay, Chris," Jessica deadpanned. "Let me build a campfire in the middle of the kitchen floor. Could you hand me some kindling?"  
  
Chris made a face at her. "No, stupid. Don't you have any candles? I thought all girls had candles."  
  
"No," Jessica said. "I have no candles." She frowned. "Oh, I do have a wax figurine thing that I made of Teddy," she offered. "Would that work?"  
  
"Like a voodoo doll?" Chris asked.  
  
"Yes, except it didn't work. I melted off his head and he's still a boy with a head."  
  
"Hmm, we could try melting his dick off," Chris said thoughtfully. "Anyway, it could work."  
  
/////  
  
It was midnight. The treehouse still smelt of burnt hair, but it was almost pleasant to Gordie now.   
  
From now on, he thought dreamily, the scent of singed human will always remind me of Elizabeth Hart.  
  
"Uh, that's sweet, Gordie," Elizabeth said hesitantly from besides him. "But I'd prefer it if you were to associate me with something less... serial killer-esque."  
  
"What?" Gordie turned to her. Oh, man, he thought sadly. She's insane.  
  
"No, I'm not!" Elizabeth was staring at Gordie with something akin to fear.  
  
"You're not what?" Gordie asked her carefully. Wasn't that how you had to deal with insane girls? Speak carefully, Chris had told him once, and never make any sudden moves.   
  
"I'm not insane," Elizabeth said impatiently. "And I appreciate the concept of associating me with the scent of burnt person, but I'd rather you think of me when you smell, like, roses or something."  
  
"How did you-"  
  
"You were talking out loud!" Elizabeth cried. "And you had this weird look in your eye, like you were going to feed me to, I don't even know, Jessica."  
  
"Oh. OH," Gordie said, understanding. Man, I really need to get this to myself! Out loud! To myself! Out loud! thing figured out.  
  
"Yeah, really," Elizabeth muttered. "So, anyway. You'd just finished telling me about when Chris saved Teddy in the tree. Teddy sounds crazy."  
  
"He is," Gordie said thoughtfully. "I mean, he's crazy sometimes, yeah. But even though he's an asshole a lot of the time, he cares about his friends a lot."  
  
"You still see him a lot?" Elizabeth asked.  
  
"Not so much," Gordie said, leaning back. "Chris and I still see Teddy and Vern at Blue Point from time to time. If we're all in there together, we sit and shoot the shit with a shake. But mostly it's just kinda, 'Hey, how you doin'' when we pass in the halls."  
  
"I'd like to meet them," Elizabeth said. "Does Jessica hang out with them ever?"  
  
"Uh, from time to time," Gordie said. "Vern had a thing for Jess a while back, and Teddy and her hate each other with a passion. So it wasn't necessarily a good idea for us to hang out together, seeing as Chris wants to castrate Vern whenever Vern's within a mile of Jess and Jessica wants to castrate Teddy... Most of the time."  
  
Elizabeth laughed. "Hey, you know what we should do?"  
  
"Run naked through Castle Rock?" Gordie suggested hopefully.   
  
Elizabeth gave him a weird look. "Uh, maybe you and Chris could do that later."  
  
"Yeah," Gordie said automatically. Elizabeth raised her eyebrows and Gordie hurled mental rocks at God and his vocal cords. Obviously they were still playing, thanks a lot, yeah. Gordie's writer's imagination saw his vocal cords saying (through whatever their own voice was) "I'll see you Gordie's interior monologue and raise you a 'Gordie isn't gay but let's make him sound very much so!'" God was probably down to his ride, because surely God was on Gordie's side.  
  
Actually, probably not.  
  
"Uh, Gordie?"  
  
"Oh!" Gordie squeaked. "Yeah, I'm here. What? I'm not gay. No, sir. I have only ever thought about naked girls! And they're hot, too!"  
  
Elizabeth cleared her throat. "Okay."  
  
"Glad we got that straightened out," Gordie nodded self-righteously.  
  
"Anyway," Elizabeth continued after a short pause. "We should play truth or dare."  
  
"Strip truth or dare?"  
  
Elizabeth shrugged. "You can strip, if you like. But it's pretty cold in here-"  
  
"Never mind!"  
  
/////  
  
Chris and Jessica sat on her bedroom floor, melting marshmallows off the burning wax effigy of Teddy in a bowl and dragging chunks of chocolate muffin through butter. Jessica's tiny demon dog Jacques was watching them suspiciously.  
  
"This is really pretty good," Chris said happily. "Hey, you know what we should do? Play truth or dare."  
  
Jessica glared at him. "Clothed truth or dare. My dog is in the room."  
  
/////  
  
"Truth or dare, Gordie?"  
  
"Truth."  
  
"Hmm." Elizabeth mulled it over. "Okay. Have you ever peed your pants because you were so scared?"  
  
Gordie squirmed. "Once. Kind of. Me and Chris and Teddy and Vern were on this train trestle bridge, the one over the Royal, you know? Anyway, Teddy and Chris were in front and Vern was crawling like the wet end he is. And I could hear noises and I turned around and there was this huge-ass train coming right at us. I nearly fell off the fuckin' bridge."  
  
Elizabeth leaned forward. "So what happened?"  
  
Gordie suddenly realized that this was his chance to talk himself up. "I, uh, yelled at everyone else to go ahead, and I stood in front of the train, daring it to stop. The train driver was all like, 'Get off the tracks, kid!' and I was all, 'Make me!' He started honking the horn, and I was all, 'Oh, please, buddy. My horn is twice the size of yours!' and-"  
  
"Gordie?" Elizabeth interrupted.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"This is truth or dare, not lie-your-ass-into-a-coma and dare."  
  
Gordie winced. "Point taken. So I cried like a girl and peed my pants a LITTLE. A LITTLE, Ms. Hart."  
  
/////  
  
"Truth or dare, Jessie?"  
  
"Dare."  
  
"Okay," Chris said enthusiastically. "I dare you to-"  
  
"No, wait," Jessica said quickly. "Truth."  
  
"Hey, you can't change your mind!" Chris cried.  
  
"Yes, I can," Jessica shuddered. "I remember when you dared Gordie to take off his pants, run into the Blue Point Diner and throw them at Francine Tupper. And you made him do it."  
  
Chris laughed hysterically. "Damn, that was cool! But no, I'd be nicer to you. You're my girlfriend and I looooooove youuuuuu."  
  
Jessica grinned at him. "Yeah, you'd dare me to take off your pants, and like I said, my dog's in the room. TRUTH."  
  
Chris pouted. "FINE. Okay. Hmm. Okay. Who would you rather make out with, Gordie or... uh... Vern?"  
  
Jessica scowled. "I hate you!"  
  
Chris grinned. "I hate you, too."  
  
"Gordie, I guess," Jessica said reluctantly. "God, I cannot believe you asked me that. What kind of boyfriend are you?"  
  
/////  
  
"Truth or dare, Elizabeth?"  
  
"Truth."  
  
"Are you ever going to pick dare?"  
  
"Not since you dared me to strip naked and dance to 'Lollipop' by the Chordettes, no."  
  
"It was just a suggestion!" Gordie said defensively. "Hmm, let's see. Um... If you were in a burning house, and your mother and father were in separate rooms, and you could only rescue one of them, who would you rescue?"  
  
Real good, Lachance. Real hot. If Chris knew you were spending the night with the girl of your dreams and playing truth or dare, and asking about her parents... God! Shut up!  
  
"Neither," Elizabeth said.  
  
Gordie blinked. "Huh?"  
  
"I would leave them both to die," Elizabeth said calmly. "My parents are assholes."  
  
"They are?"  
  
"Yes," Elizabeth said with a quiet intensity. "They're two rich bitches who never wanted kids and let me and my brother know it by moving us from place to place without ever asking where WE would like to go, drinking themselves into oblivion before we've even gone to bed, spending all their money on themselves, not acknowledging our birthdays and telling us every time either of us fucks up that we were both mistakes and that my mother would have aborted us if she'd known. For Christmas last year, they bought each other cars. My and my brother bought each other gifts and got nothing from them. I gave my mother a vase that I made and she got drunk and used it to spit in."  
  
Gordie didn't know what to say. Elizabeth wasn't crying or anything, but her face was white and her eyes emotionless.  
  
"I'm sorry," Gordie said, awkwardly, sincerely.  
  
"Me too," Elizabeth said, quietly, sadly.  
  
Gordie scooted over and put his arm around her.  
  
Some vague part of his mind said, Score!  
  
Gordie told it to shut up.  
  
/////  
  
"Chris, truth or dare?"  
  
"Dare."  
  
"Okay, truth."  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"Shut up!" Jessica thought for a moment. "I hate this fucking game! I don't even know. When did you last cry?"  
  
Then Jessica wished with all her heart that she'd thought before she spoke, because Chris's jaw tightened and the laughter went out of his eyes.  
  
"Never mind," she said quickly. "Forget it."  
  
"No, it's okay," Chris said in a low voice. "Most kids would just answer that normally, so why shouldn't I?"  
  
"Chris," Jessica said helplessly. "I didn't think. I'm sorry, sweetie. Let's just eat our marshmallows. You want to help me form a penis out of wax for Teddy?" She busied herself with that bizarre task.  
  
Chris acted as though he hadn't heard, staring at the floor. "Jessie," he said quietly.  
  
Jessica turned reluctantly. "Yeah."  
  
Chris looked at her, his eyes shining with unshed tears. "My dad's started beating on my mom again."  
  
Jessica took his hand and held on tightly.  
  
"Yesterday I went home," Chris continued thickly. "And I went into the living room and he was standing over her, kicking her. They were both drunk. And she was screaming at him and he just kept hitting her, so I went over and tried to pull him off, but he just..." Chris pulled up his shirt and showed Jessica the huge bruise on his ribs. "And then my mother ran out of the house and he ran after her. I couldn't move for a while and then Debbie came into the room, and she was crying."  
  
Jessica held her breath. Deborah was Chris's seven year old sister and the reason he kept going home.  
  
"Had he-"  
  
"No," Chris said, cutting Jessica's question off. "He never hits Debbie. He just scares the shit out of her." Chris sniffed and rubbed his eyes. "God, I'm so sick of this shit."  
  
"I know," Jessica said, stroking his hair. "I know you are."  
  
/////  
  
As the night went on, the laughter eventually returned to the treehouse and to Jessica's room. Elizabeth and Chris both needed some time to recover, which they got, and then they forgot their troubles as best they could. Gordie comforted Elizabeth the way he would comfort Chris (without the fart jokes) and Jessica comforted Chris the way she had done whenever he had needed it over the last three years.  
  
At seventeen and sixteen and fifteen, you may not know all about the world, but you know enough about love and kindness. The four teenagers knew more than most.  
  
/////  
  
A/N: Wow, I wrote that real fast, so any typos, etc, I'm sorry! I'm soryr it goes from happy to sad so fast too. Please R and R, I'm sorry if this chapter wasn't so good! 


	6. A deeper meaning

A.N: Okay, well, here's another one. Thanks so much for all the reviews, you all are stars! 3 I hope you like this chapter. It seems pretty short, so I'm sorry about that. This chapter focuses more on Chris than anyone, but Gordie will be coming back into center stage in the next chapter. Enjoy :)  
  
/////  
  
Gordie sat down next to Chris at the lunch table so happily that it made Chris's eyes hurt.  
  
"Hey, Gordo," Chris said weakly, shielding his eyes from Gordie's grin.  
  
"Hello, Chris!" Gordie greeted him. "How are you on this charming Tuesday?"  
  
Chris scowled at him. "What are you so fuckin' cheerful about?"  
  
"Nothing," Gordie said. And beamed.   
  
Chris rolled his eyes and returned to his chicken. Gordie watched him for a second. "What are YOU so fuckin' MISERABLE about?"  
  
"I'm not miserable, I'm just tired," Chris said, giving him a half-smile. "I was up until four trying to get Teddy's dick to stay on." Gordie looked at him with alarm, and Chris snickered. "Yeah, long story."  
  
"What you do in your spare time..." Gordie said, shrugging. Chris gave him the finger.  
  
"Eat me raw, Lachance."  
  
"Yeah, yeah. Where's Jessica, anyway?"  
  
Chris shrugged. "Last time I saw her, she was in the lunch line, beating Edith McCain around the head with a folder."  
  
Gordie nodded knowingly. Jessica and Edith had a longstanding rivalry, begun when Edith had come to school wearing a chipmunk fur hat. "What was it this time?"   
  
"I think Edith had tried to get the last chocolate pudding. I would have broken it up, but last time I did that, Jessica wound up punching me. Besides, it's kind of cool to see them fight." Chris yawned and rubbed his eyes. "Shit, I'm so tired. What time did you end up going home last night, man?"  
  
Gordie grinned the man-of-the-world grin he had been practising all morning. "Seven."  
  
Chris didn't even look up for his food. "No way, me and Jessie went home later than seven and you were still sitting on your sorry ass waiting for Elizabeth."  
  
Gordie grinned the MOTW grin again, and winked at Chris... who still didn't look up. Gordie sighed impatiently. "Chris?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Look up for a sec."  
  
Chris glanced up. Gordie grinned suavely at him and winked, and Chris choked on his juice. "What the fuck?! Gordie, I told you yesterday to never practice flirting on me again-"  
  
"No, no," Gordie said irritably. "I went home at seven. In the morning."  
  
Chris's eyes widened. "You stayed there all night? What the hell for?"  
  
Gordie raised his eyebrows in a way he had seen Elvis do once. "I wasn't alone. Elizabeth arrived five minutes after you'd gone."  
  
Chris grinned at him. "All right! So you were there all night with her?" He nudged him.  
  
"Yeah," Gordie said. "All night. Baby."  
  
"'Baby'?"  
  
"It sounded cool," Gordie explained. "But nothing happened, we just talked. All. Night. Baby."  
  
Chris rolled his eyes. "Okay, first, stop with the 'Baby' thing. I've heard enough endearments from you this week. And second, you guys were there all night and nothing happened? You expect me to believe that?" He paused and looked Gordie up and down. "Actually, I guess it is YOU. But are you crazy, Lachance? You spent the whole night with the girl you like in a private house-"  
  
"That's in a tree," Gordie reminded him. "And falling apart."  
  
"Yeah, but, anyway. You spent the whole night with her, and you didn't put the moves on her? Or anything?"  
  
"Nope," Gordie said dreamily. "We just connected."  
  
"*Connected*?"  
  
"In a spiritual way," Gordie said defensively.  
  
"Spiritual." Chris studied Gordie. "You're kicking yourself mentally."  
  
"No!" Gordie said. "It was perfect! We spent the night getting to know one another. I wouldn't have wanted it any other way-"  
  
Chris waited. Gordie groaned and put his head in his hands. "Okay, so I wanted to put the moves on her. Really badly. But I couldn't. There was just no right time for it."  
  
Chris exhaled loudly. "Gordo, you always say that. If you're waiting for angels to start singing and candles and red wine, you're going to be waiting forever. Here's what you do. You get her alone. Like you had her. The. Whole. Night. And you put your arm around his shoulder and touch her face. Then you lean in and-"  
  
"And what?"  
  
Both boys jumped and looked up. Elizabeth was standing behind them, her hands on her hips.  
  
"And you ask about your tax returns," Chris said smoothly. "The lady at the bank is really stingy about them. We're just discussing the best strategies to get her to be a little more... generous."  
  
Elizabeth smiled and sat down beside Gordie. "Right."  
  
"Uh, how much did you hear?" Gordie asked weakly.   
  
"Enough to think that Chris was hitting on you," Elizabeth giggled.  
  
Chris's eyes widened again. "Shut up! That's un-fucking-believable! Gordie was the one hitting on *me* all of yesterday-"  
  
"LIZ!!!!!!!"  
  
All three turned and looked in alarm at the source of the noise. Then Elizabeth jumped to her feet.  
  
"CRYSTAL!!!!!"  
  
She ran over and was instantly pulled into a hug by the first screamer. Chris and Gordie's jaws dropped collectively.  
  
Elizabeth returned with the screamer in tow. "Guys, this is my cousin! Oh, I guess you already know her?"  
  
"Yeah," Gordie managed to say. Chris's mouth was still wide open. Standing next to Elizabeth was Crystal Walker, head Popular-But-Bitchy cheerleader (she had obviously been absent yesterday when Jessica signed her death warrent with them) and best looking girl in the whole school. As tall as Chris, with gleaming golden brown hair, a deep tan and big brown eyes, Gordie couldn't remember Crystal ever saying a word to him. About anything.  
  
"Oh, are these your friends?" Crystal said, sounding amused. "Chris Chambers and Gordie Lachance? Gee, Liz, you're sure burning up the social ladder here!"  
  
"Shut up, Crystal," Elizabeth said, unfazed. "Do you want to sit?"  
  
"Sure," Crystal said. "Not here, obviously."  
  
"Well, I'm sitting here," Elizabeth said, falling back into her chair. "So..."  
  
Crystal sighed and ungraciously sat down next to Chris, who inched away.  
  
"So, Liz," she said. "How do you like it here?"  
  
"It's amazing," Elizabeth said, smiling at Gordie. "Wow, Crystal, I haven't seen you in forever! How have you been?"  
  
Crystal giggled. "Oh, you know, the same."  
  
As the girls chatted, Gordie leaned over to Chris. "You're sitting next to Crystal Walker!" he hissed in his ear.  
  
Chris rolled his eyes. "I know."  
  
"Do something!" Gordie whispered excitedly. "Offer to buy her something. Propose marriage! Impregnate her! Ask her-"  
  
Chris cut him off. "Gordie, I have a girlfriend!" he whispered. "Why don't *you* do something? Jeez, at least look down her shirt."  
  
"Elizabeth is sitting right next to me," Gordie pointed out. "She might kill me."  
  
"Gordie," Elizabeth said, interrupting their conversation. "What did you think of the Chemistry test today?"  
  
"I spent the whole time stealing Danny Mujer's Gummi Bears and murdering them with my pencil," Gordie admitted. "What did you do?"  
  
As Elizabeth and Gordie compared procrastinating techniques, Chris sat back and wished Jessica would get here. What the hell was taking her so long? The thought made him anxious. Once Jessica had been late to meet him and had arrived three hours late, covered in mud and leaves. She had followed a bird into a tree and had subsequently been stuck up the tree until she eventually fell out. Chris snickered under his breath. Probably Jessica was stuffing Edith McCain into her locker right about now. Unless it was the other way around. Chris made a mental note to stop by the office and steal Edith McCain's locker combination after lunch, if Jessica hadn't arrived. Just, you know, to be on the safe side.  
  
He became aware someone was staring at him. He glanced up and wondered why he hadn't yet turned to stone, because Crystal Walker was staring at him.  
  
"What?" Chris asked, uncomfortable.  
  
"Nothing," Crystal said. "I was just noticing how much taller you'd gotten since last summer."  
  
"Yeah, I grew," Chris said. "What's it to you?"  
  
"Nothing!" Crystal said again. "Jeez, why are you so defensive, Chambers?"  
  
"Because you're a bitch. I haven't forgotten the time you and your little bitch friends stole Teddy's glasses and hid them for a week. Or when you put pillows under your shirts and pretended to be Vern. I'm not stupid, Crystal. I know that whatever you say to me is just leading up to a way to insult me. Just get on with it, okay?" Chris shook his head and looked around again for Jessica.  
  
"Don't be such an asshole, Chris," Crystal said cheerfully. "They were just jokes. And we didn't do them to you. And we apologised for them." When Chris didn't answer, she hesitated and peered closely at him. "Wow, you're serious. Come on. I'm sorry, really."  
  
"Whatever, just leave me alone." When no reply came to this (admittedly not very cutting) comeback, Chris glanced at Crystal and was staggered. She looked almost... well, sorry. Chris instantly felt bad for making her feel bad, and in the next moment, cursed his heart. Why did he always feel bad when people felt guilty, when they should feel guilty? It was the same with his parents. Days after his dad had beaten the shit out of him, his mother would come over and apologise profusely for running away. Or his dad would even gruffly ask Chris how his eye (the same one he had smashed with his fist) was, and look guilty when Chris replied that it still hurt- and Chris would make excuses for his father in his head. Oh, he didn't mean to do it. He was drunk. He was upset. Chris had been getting in his way.  
  
But Crystal looked so sad.  
  
Chris reached and awkwardly touched her shoulder. "It's okay, forget it."   
  
Crystal glanced up. "Sincerely?"  
  
Chris shrugged. "Yeah. It doesn't matter."  
  
Crystal smiled at him and, worryingly, he felt his insides turn to jelly. This must be what it was like to be Gordie.  
  
"Okay. Thanks, Chris." Crystal turned to Elizabeth, interrupting Gordie's demonstration of the best way to murder a Gummi Bear (rip off its head, throw head at someone, pull off the Gummi Bear's limbs, stick them to one's face, eat Gummi Bear's innards). "Liz, I'm, uh, gonna go. See you later?'  
  
"Okay," Elizabeth waved distractedly.  
  
Crystal turned to Chris. "See ya."  
  
"Yeah."  
  
Crystal glanced at Gordie, who was enthusiastically imitating a Gummi Bear as it was being murdered ("No! Please don't eat me! Please, Mr. Lachance! I just want to be your friend- argh! Noooooooooooo-"), made a face, and scurried off. Chris smiled slightly in confusion, watching her go.   
  
"Hello, hello, hello!" Jessica leapt into the seat that Crystal had just vacated. "God, was that Superbitch, leader of the bitches, she who has come to rule all, the one ring-"  
  
"Yeah," Chris said, shaking thoughts of Crystal out of his mind and turning his attention to the ball of energy next to him. "Where the hell have you been? I thought Edith had eaten you."  
  
"I'm suprised she didn't," Jessica shuddered. "I had to go wash chocolate pudding out of my hair. I have a lot more hair than I originally thought. Hey, Liz and Gordie sure look friendly."  
  
"Yeah, they spent the night together," Chris hissed. "In the treehouse."  
  
Jessica gasped. "No way!"  
  
Chris nodded. "Yeah, but don't say anything-"  
  
"Hey, Liz!" Jessica said. "I hear you and Gordie were doing it all night in the treehouse." Chris slapped his hand to his forehead.  
  
Elizabeth grimaced. "No. Not exactly."  
  
"Did Gordie woo you?" Jessica asked. "He was wooing Chris yesterday."  
  
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, I heard about that. There wasn't much wooing. Maybe an oo."  
  
"Well, that's a start," Jessica said encouragingly. "Gordie, did you-" She stopped. "Did something happen to your hair?"  
  
/////  
  
A/N: Well, there we go. I'm hoping to get another chapter written this weekend, so maybe I can get it up. Please R and R, you guys, I need the love! It's been a BAD WEEK. 


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